


In Another Life

by electric016



Category: 999: Nine Hours Nine Persons Nine Doors - Fandom, Zero Escape (Video Games)
Genre: AU, F/M, parallel worlds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-15
Updated: 2015-02-15
Packaged: 2018-03-12 22:37:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3357848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/electric016/pseuds/electric016
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Part of the ZEcret Valentine's exchange.  Akane and Junpei meet in a different timeline.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Another Life

**Author's Note:**

> This was a ZEcret Valentine's gift for tenmyoujikin on tumblr who requested Akane/Junpei!

There are, if you can imagine, an infinite number of universes all pushed up against each other. Most people are completely unaware of just how close they are to one another. Echoes bleed through, of course. There are moments of overlap: feelings of having done something before; feeling sad for no reason at all; strong senses of foreboding; that gut reaction that says ‘maybe we should take a different route home today.’ But mostly they exist completely independent of each other.

It was spring, the start of a new semester. Junpei’s first semester in university in fact. Things had been going well so far. None of his classes seemed like they were going to be unreasonable. He’d had no problem finding the campus or his classrooms, and the novelty of having his own apartment had yet to wear off. Yeah, things had been going great.

Right up till now.

How exactly it had happened he’s still not entirely sure. All he knows is that he put his money into the stupid machine, made his selection then heard the  _thunk_ of his drink dropping down. However, when he went to retrieve it: no drink.

Goddammit.

Well he’d  _heard_  it fall, so it must be stuck just above the tray. Surely if he just felt around for it, it would come out.

So here he was and had been for the last ten minutes. Knelt on the floor, hand stuck in a vending machine, trying to extricate himself without drawing more attention than necessary. Maybe if he just wiggled his hand a bit to the left, it would—

“Jumpy?”

Junpei froze.

He hadn’t been called that since…elementary school. He turned as best he could to look up at the speaker. Looking down at him was a girl with long dark hair and a concerned expression on her face. She wore a purple dress and a black scarf. Her hair was pinned at the side in a bun.

Junpei had heard that when you die, your whole life flashes before your eyes. He wasn’t sure if that was true, but something very similar happened to him in that moment. Except rather than his whole life, it was simply every stupid and embarrassing thing that had ever happened to lead him to this moment. And instantly he regretted every single one of those things. Because on the grand list of ways Junpei wanted to reunite with a dear childhood friend ‘sitting on the floor with his hand stuck in a vending machine’ was way the hell down there.

“Akane!”—there was no one else it could have been—“What are you doing here?”

She gestured to the books in her arms. “I’m a student.”

“What, no way! Me too! …God I haven’t seen you in ages. What are you studying?”

“Quantum physics,” she said, a smile creeping onto her face.

“Wow. That sounds…challenging.”

“Yeah. I hope so.”

There was an awkward pause. Akane’s eyes drifted to where Junpei’s arm disappeared into the vending machine. And all of a sudden Junpei remembered why he was in such an uncomfortable position, and gave his arms a few fruitless tugs to try to remove it.

“So, trying to get a free soda?” She asked, grinning.

“Uh. No. Nothing like that. I paid for it, and it’s just here, I can feel it, but, uh, I’m actually a little stuck.”

“No kidding?”

“Yeah. I guess I picked a lousy time to want a—“ And there it was. That echo Junpei couldn’t actually hear: I picked a lousy time to want a [ _water, orange juice, tea, Aquarius, actually I wasn’t thirsty, I’m going to meet you next week coming out of Chemistry_ ]—“coke.”

She laughed. “Yeah, you always did have a knack for getting yourself into trouble.” [ _We both do_ ] “Here, let me help you.”

She crouched down beside him, setting her books and bag on the floor.

He felt his cheeks warm when she placed her hands around his wrist, working to maneuver the plastic out of the way so that it might release his hand.

“That’s really stuck in there.” Akane said sitting back, her hands on her hips. “How on earth did you do that?”

“I don’t know.” Junpei groaned, resting his forehead against the front of the machine.

“Well you don’t go anywhere.”—He shot her a glare that made her grin—“I’ll go find someone to help us.”

It took a good hour for the vending machine technician to show up and release Junpei’s hand. But Junpei couldn’t complain too much, since Akane sat with him, and they shared stories about what they’d been up to since they last saw each other.

They walked back in the direction of the station together, a shared coke between them, and parted ways with a promise to go to dinner that weekend.

 

Their first kiss was almost entirely on accident. Junpei wasn’t planning on kissing her, but the mood just sort of struck him [ _in the back of a friend’s car, at the movies, when they sneak off together during a class field trip in high school, when she slaps him first because goddammit Junpei don’t scare me like that then kisses him right there on the hospital bed_ ]. Unfortunately, Akane also wasn’t expecting it, so he caught her mid-sentence, her mouth wide open. Her attempt to close her mouth only made things more awkward, and in the end they both started laughing too hard to really care. She kissed him properly after they caught their breath.

 

Akane placed her hand on Junpei’s fidgeting leg. “Junpei, relax. It’ll be fine.”

Junpei sighed, “Yeah, I know. I can’t help it.”

They were taking the train [ _bus, taxi, walking, they had an argument and decided not to go_ ] out to the suburbs to visit Akane’s brother. She’d been dying for Junpei to meet him ever since they’d started seriously dating. And although Akane only had kind things to say about her brother, Junpei couldn’t help but worry.

Akane was always talking about how wonderful her stockbroker brother was. How he practically raised her after their parents died. Junpei wasn’t sure if he could measure up to whatever standards this man surely had for him.

“You’re worrying too much.” Akane repeated, leaning over to plant a kiss on his cheek. “I love you, so he will too.”

Junpei tried to keep this in mind as he and Akane rode the elevator up to his apartment. It felt like an eternity before he finally answered the door. But when it finally did open, all Junpei could think was how much Akane’s brother didn’t look like his idea of a stockbroker.

His hair was styled back, pulled into place by some kind of black hair band. His white sleeveless shirt hung on him showing off his well-sculpted body. He had a piercing gaze and Junpei felt like he could see into his very soul.

“Aoi!” Akane greeted, all cheer and smiles, throwing her arms around her brother’s neck. [ _not Aoi. Her parents. Akane doesn’t talk about her lost brother and has to work a little harder to be cheerful_ ].

“Hey, sis.” He said, returning the hug, “Doing okay?”

“Yeah,” she responded sweetly, then turns to acknowledge Junpei who was slipping off his shoes.

“Junpei, this is my brother, Aoi. Aoi, this is Junpei.”

“Sup, Junpei.” He extended his had for Junpei to shake.  

“Hi,” Junpei responded awkwardly, a little thrown off by the casual greeting.

"My sister will not shut up about you. Come in, I’ve got dinner in the kitchen.”

“Did you cook, Aoi?” Akane asked, sounding a little apprehensive.

“Hah! Fuck that! Nah, I got some take out for us. Sushi okay?”

The apartment was modern, but warm [ _it’s cold and dark and every morning Aoi Kurashiki wakes up wondering what he could have done differently to save his sister_ ].  Junpei felt surprisingly at home. He was sure that had to do with how relaxed Akane was and how easily the siblings included him in conversation.

However, when Akane got up to use the bathroom, Aoi took the opportunity to inform Junpei, that should he mistreat his sister in anyway, he knew people he could pay off to dispose of a body. But then smiled and asked him how his classes were going.

When they left that evening, Junpei decided he was still a little terrified of Aoi Kurashiki, but ultimately glad that Akane had someone so cool looking out for her.

 

When they decide to move in together, they pack up Junpei’s old one room college apartment together. Akane’s things had been living with her at Aoi’s for the last week, and all that was left was to go through Junpei’s stuff.

So far it had been a slow process. Junpei was far too clingy about his things, and they kept taking breaks for kisses.

“What’s this?” Akane asked, pulling an old shoebox out from the back of Junpei’s closet [ _from under his bed, from behind his desk, there isn’t a box it’s a plastic shopping bag_ ].

“Huh? Oh that…”

Akane had already pulled off the top and was going through the contents.

“Junpei.”

“I know!”

“Junpei. I really thought the relationship was going to last longer.”

“I’m sorry!”

“How long have we been together? How did I not know about this?”

“I don’t know! I was really good at hiding it!”

“What would Aoi say?”

“He’d probably kill me.”

Akane laughed. “I don’t know if he’d kill you, but I’m think there’d at least be some public humiliation. How much did you spend on all this?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” He said burying his face in the back of her shoulder.

“So tell me who is your favorite, Asuka or Rei?”

“Asuka.” He mumbled into her shoulder.

“What was that?”

“Asuka!” he shouted reaching to grab the box from her, but Akane held it out of reach.

Akane laughed. “You are such a nerd! Oh Jumpy, I’d have never pegged you for an Evangelion guy.”

“Kanny!” he whined, “just give me back my swag box so I can die with my shame in peace.”

“No! No! You’ve got some really good stuff in here! Aww! The Rei as Hello Kitty is really cute! Can I have it?”

“You want my Evangelion-Hello Kitty phone charm?”

She grinned innocently, at him.

“Oh my god, Kanny.”

“What?”

“I should have known!” At this point Akane had dissolved into laughter. “Of course you like Evangelion!”

“Well, I’m not as avid as you it seems, but I enjoyed it when I watched it.”

“Oh my god. I can’t believe this.”

“Is this the soundtrack?” She asked pulling a CD case from the box.

“Yeah…”

“Excellent! I don’t think we’ve packed up your CD player yet.”

“No, Kanny!”

“Yes, Jumpy!”  She puts the CD in and presses play.

“Kanny… you know the words?”

“Everybody knows the words to this song, now sing with me!” She said grabbing his hands and swinging him around. And that’s about what it took because the next moment they were both signing at the top of their lungs and dancing around the apartment.

As the song ended they both collapsed onto the unmade bed, out of breath and grinning.

“I love you, you know that?” He says, leaning over to kiss her.

“I did kind of hope so since you’re moving in with me.”

“Rude.”

The CD player started playing ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ behind them.

“Come on.” Junpei said, standing up and offering Akane his hand, “Dance with me?”

She gave him her hand and let him spin her into a slow dance, and giggled as he did his best to sing along.

“Your English is terrible.”

“I know. But you love me anyway.”

She kissed him. “Yeah. I do.”

In some universes the world ends. In some it hasn’t even begun yet.  In some they’re happy together, others they spend their whole lives trying to be happy. Here in this one, they don’t have to save the world, and they don’t have to save each other. And really, sometimes being happy is all you need.


End file.
